Six South Florida couples who want to get married, but can't because they're gay, filed a lawsuit against the state on Tuesday seeking to overturn the Sunshine State's ban on same-sex marriage.

Their lawsuit argues that preventing same-sex couples from marrying violates "the fundamental rights, dignity, and equality guaranteed to all persons by the United States Constitution."

Plantation residents Summer Greene, 58, and Pamela Faerber, 56, are two of the plaintiffs seeking the right to marry.

"Florida is our home, and has been for decades. This is where we live. This is where we raised our family. This is where we own our home. And this is where we rest our hearts," Greene said. After 25 years together, Faerber said, "We are a family. No piece of paper can change that. But we want to be legally recognized as a family in the state of Florida."

By turning to the courts, Florida gay rights activists are following a strategy that's increasingly paid off in states across the country, said José Gabilondo, a law professor at Florida International University who isn't involved in the case. In recent months, state supreme courts have legalized same-sex marriages in New Jersey and New Mexico.

"Our ultimate goal is to secure a victory in the Florida Supreme Court holding for the entire state that Florida's marriage ban is unconstitutional so that everyone in the state would be able to marry," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in June advanced same-sex marriage and gave a jolt of momentum to advocates. But they had little immediate impact in Florida, where voters added a ban on same-sex marriage to the state Constitution in 2008. Gay and lesbian Floridians who marry elsewhere and return home can get some federal benefits, but the state doesn't recognize their marriages.

It's impossible to predict whether this case will allow that to happen, Gabilondo said. "The truth is, judges are black boxes in the sense that one is not sure exactly what is going on in there," he said. "Almost anything could happen."

The lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, puts a contentious social and political issue on the front burner in an election year.

Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, said in an interview last year that he believes in "traditional marriage." Former Gov. Charlie Crist supported the 2008 gay-marriage ban when he was a Republican. Now a Democrat seeking his old job, he switched his position last year and apologized to the gay community earlier this month for supporting the 2008 ban. Another Democratic candidate for governor, former Florida Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich of Weston, has long supported same-sex marriage.

Polling shows Florida voters are roughly evenly divided on the issue, but there are major differences. Democrats and independents are more supportive of same-sex marriage than Republicans, and younger voters are more supportive than older voters.

In 2008, 62 percent of voters favored adding the ban on same-sex marriage to the Florida Constitution.

"Florida is very different than it was in 2008," said Nadine Smith, the chief executive of Equality Florida. "The majority of Floridians now stand with us."

John Stemberger, president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council, said the lawsuit was a "publicity stunt" and plaintiffs were "forum shopping" by filing in Miami-Dade County, which he said is more liberal than other parts of the state.

"Gay activists cannot win in the marketplace, so they have resorted to trying to find renegade courts who have little respect for the rule of law to create social change that would never happen through the people or their elected representatives," said Stemberger, who spearheaded the petition drive that got the anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot.

Jannique Stewart, of Coconut Creek, is executive director of Love Protects, a Christian ministry that believes in a biblical approach to sexuality, and was South Florida spokeswoman for the 2008 amendment.

"They can file the lawsuit all they want," she said. "In 2008, we the people voted for marriage as one man and one woman. So they're trying to thwart the will of the people."

Pastor Mark D. Boykin, senior pastor of Church of All Nations in Boca Raton, agreed. "The people should ultimately make that decision, not the courts."

After the Supreme Court ruled, some gay rights advocates considered pushing to get a referendum for same-sex marriage before Florida voters, something that few political experts thought could win the required 60 percent vote to amend the state Constitution.

Smith said going the judicial route isn't a tactic to thwart the voters. "Rights by their very nature ought not to be put up to popular vote. It's unfortunate that that happened in 2008."

Elizabeth F. Schwartz, past president of the Miami Beach Bar Association and co-chairwoman of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association of Miami, said there are 40 cases across the country challenging various state bans on same-sex marriage. She and Minter said it was filed against the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Circuit Court because court clerks handle marriage licenses in Florida.

Even though the lawsuit alleges violation of federal constitutional rights, it was filed in state court. Minter, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said state courts can consider such questions. But Gabilondo, the FIU professor, said a federal court was probably a better venue because that's where the issue will almost certainly be ultimately decided.

Also representing the plaintiffs is the big, national law firm Carlton Fields Jorden Burt. Four of the six couples are from Broward, including Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Alenier, of Hollywood, and Juan Carlos Rodriguez and David Price, of Davie.

Plaintiffs Todd Delmay, 42, and Jeff Delmay, 42, of Hollywood, said they've never been involved in anything especially political or that put them in front of a bank of television cameras the way they were Tuesday.

They simply want to get married after 11 years together. They took elements of each man's name for a new family last name because they wanted their son, now 3, to have as typical a family life as possible.

"From the moment I met him, I knew this was the man I wanted to marry and to build a life with," Jeff Delmay said.

And they want that union to take place in Florida. "Our family is here. Our friends are here. Our life is here. This is where we want to get married," he said. "And we look forward to having the right and the freedom to marry in the state which we love. And that day will come very soon."

The U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage drew cheers from South Florida gay and lesbian couples, scorn from conservative Christians, and underscored fault lines on the issue within the Republican Party.

Jeff Delmay looks on as his partner, Todd Delmay, both of Hollywood, speaks during a news conference held by Equality Florida in Miami Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. Six gay couples, including four couples from Broward County, are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the main statewide gay...

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